


^^-n^. 

















^^.^ oV^^ia'- '^-^v* ^£m^^. -n^o^ « 



^i-o^ 



^•^°^ 




r^ o 



'bV 













l.^'* '^^ 




. >.. .^' .>V.:^ \^/ ;^\ ^^^^^^ ;^|^, X- 



t • o - 






































■^'*\((i) <S?K^CS )/ (•>-■ 



^ ^ 



masbington's Bequest 
Co fils f elloW'Cifizens, 



^ -^i 



-An address delivered at- 



A Centenary of Menioriai Services 

Reld at (Ui$cd$$et, me., Januiiry i$t, i$oo» 

By Liicolii Loflifi No. 3, F. ami A. M. 

By The REV. JOHN GREQSON, A. M.: B. D. 



Rector of 5t. Philip's Church, Wiscasset, and St. 
John's Church, Dresden. 



m $t. PWlip's Cburcb, Sunday, January 7tb, 1900. 



Delivered and published at the request of Lincoln Lodge No. 3, 
« « F. and A. M. « • 



c-e> 



V<S^g^3K-q>^ 






* ^ Co Bis Tdl0W'€ltizen$. 



-An Address Delivered at- 



A Centenary of Meirioriai Services 

l)eld at Oliscasset, m., Jmuty i$t, i»oo, 

By Liiicoli Loip 1. 3, F. ai A. M. 

By The Rev. JOHN GREQSON, A. M.: B. D. 



Rector of St. Philip's Church, WIscasset, and St, 
John's Church, Dresden. 

In $t. Philip's Cfturcb, Sunday, Januarv 7% i^oo. 



Delivered and Published at the Request of Lincoln Lodge No. 3, 
« « F. and A. M. « « 



WISCASSET: 

Chas. v.. Emerson. Printi;r. 

icoo. 






.^8 



57295 



liincoln Iiodge flo. 3, p. & ft- W 



The Members of Lincoln Lodge together with a 
Number of Vissiting Brethren Met at Masons Hall 
on Wednesday the ist day of January A. D. 1800 
A:L 5Soo-at ^^ past i OClock P:M. according to 
Adjournment, & Opened on the first Step of Mason- 
ry, and proceeded to the business of the day-Bro : 
Seth Tinkham being Appointed Marshal, the pro- 
cession was then form'd by him, and March'd with 
Martial Musick (the Instruments being dressed in 
Mourning) to the House of General A : Wood, where 
a General procession was form'd, and March'd in the 
following Manner to the Meeting House Viz't — 
Martial Musick Playing a Solem March- 
The Artillery Company in uniform 2 & 2 
Citizens-2 & 2-with the Committee of Arrange- 
ments 
Majestrates 
Select Men- 
Militia Officers 
Members of Lincoln Lodge & Vissiting Brethren 
Gen'I Wood & Rev'd Alden Bradford- 
After Arriving at the Meeting House an elegant 
and pathetick Eulogy was pronounced by the Rev'd 
Mr. Bradford, the discourse was Solem & pertinent 
to the Solem Occasion - during the time Minute 
Guns were fired from Capt. Elwells pieces of Artillery 
and continued until 67 were discharged - Not only 
the Masons but every other Class of Citizens seemed 
impressed with the Melancholy Idea that they were 
called to Mourn the loss of the Man of Worth, the 
Saviour of his Country- the procession then return'd 
in the like order. 



At a regular meeting of this Ix)clge holden December 1 4lh 

1899, being the one hundrcth anniversar}- of the death of George 
Washington, the secretary called attention to the record of the 
iiction of the Lodge upon receiving news of that event. 
From which record it appears that at a special meeting of 
the Lodge on the 31st day of December, 1799, "^^^^ Death of 
our late illustrious & respected Brother Cieorge Washington was 
Announc'd — It was then motion'd and Voted that the Members 
of this Lodge and all Vissiting Brethren which shou'd be in the 
place on the Morrow — should walk in Funeral Procession in the 
Usual full Mourning — "' A committee, consisting of Seth 
'linkham, Samuel Miller and Jonathan Bowman. Jr., were ap- 
pointed to arrange the order of procession. A copy of the 
re'.Y)rd of the next day is given on the preceding i^age. 

\N'hereupon the Lodge, deeply sensible of the proi>rifty of 
contributing to the centennial observance of the death of their 
honored Brother, as well as in recognition of the patriotic spirit 
and fraternal regard manifested by their ancient Brethren of this 
Lodge by their ceremonies of one hundred years ago, unanimous- 
ly adopted the following resolution presented by Bro. (ieo. B. Saw- 
ver, viz : — That the Lodge meet on the first day of January, 

1900, and, if the permission of the M. \\'. (irand Master be ob- 
tained, proceed to one of the churches in this town for the pur- 
]>ose of observing with appropriate ceremonies the one hundreth 
anniversary of the death of our illustrious Brother and the first 
President of the United States, George Washington, and that the 
arrangements therefor be left in charge of the fir.st three officers 
of the Lodge, and that Bro. John Gregson be invited to deliver 
an oration upon the occasion. The committee was increased by 
the addition of IJrothers William D. Patterson, George B. vSawyer 
and Frederick W . Sewall. 

The Lodge met at Masonic Hall in Wiscasset on the first 
<lay of January, 1900, at half past one o'clock, and a Lodge of 
Master INIasons was duly opened, but owing to the severity of the 
snow storm then raging the Lodge was closed to re-open on the 
7th of the month. 



On Sunday, January 7th, 1900, at half past one o'clock, the 
l/xige was re-opened agreeably to adjournment, VV. M. Clar- 
ence A. Peaslee presiding. The Lodge was largely attended — 
brethren from Dresden, Edgecomb, South Newcastle and Wool- 
wich being present to do honor to the occasion. The Marshal, 
George F. Rines, formed the procession, "2 & 2", which was 
joined by the Selectmen and other citizens and the children from 
the public schools, and accompanied by martial music marched 
to St. Philip's Church where the public ceremonies were held by 
invitation of the rector, Rev. Bro. John Gregson. Arriving at 
the Church the grand march, ''Pontificale", by Gounod, was play- 
ed — Miss Nina F. Rundlett presiding at the organ and assisted 
by Bro. Frederick W. Sewall with violin obligato ; after which the 
Master Masons' hymn, ".\h, when shall we three meet again," to 
the tune of Hebron was sung. Then the Rector said the Lord's 
Prayer and tlie Collects for St. John the Evangelist's, St. John the 
Baptist's, and All Saints Day, and that beginning "Almighty and 
Ever-living God," in the office for the Burial of the Dead. The 
Lesson read was from the Book of Ecclesiasticus, Chapter XLIV, 
1-J5, "Let us now praise famous men." The second hymn 
was then sung, "Behold how pleasant and how good," to the 
tune of Peterborough. The minutes of the special meeting of 
Lincoln Lodge January ist, 1800, were then read by the Rector 
in the absence of the Secretary. The address followed by the 
Rev. Bro. John Gregson. .\fter which "America" was sung by the 
whole congregation, "My country 'tis of thee." The collect, 
"Lighten our Darkness," and the benediction closed the services- 

The procession was again formed, and to the music of the 
inarch "Pontificale" left the church, and with martial music re- 
turned to the hall, where the Lodge, after completing the busi- 
ness of the day was, closed in due form. 



Washington's Bequest to his Fellow Citizens : 

The Centennial Celebration of any event, Wor- 
shipful Master and brethren, and fellow citizens, 
means that it was something worthy of remembrance. 
As far as Lincoln Lodge of Free and Accepted 
Masons is concerned this centennial brings to mind 
what our brethren were doing on the first day of 
the last year of the eighteenth century. They 
showed publicly by a procession, and an eulogy by 
the Rev. Alden Bradford, the grief which they, in 
common with all Americans, suffered in the death 
of their late illustrious and respected brother, George 
Washington. They spoke of George Washington 
in these terms : Illustrious and Respected. Their 
townsmen joined them in this observance. All our 
citizens must have felt in their hearts the great loss 
of the Nation in the death of him who had been 
"First in War, First in Peace, and First in the 
Hearts of his Countrymen." The phrase in this 
form occurs in an eulogy pronounced on the Death 
of Washington, at the request of the Congress of 
of the United States, by General Henry Lee of 
Virginia. And such a sentiment formulated by men 
who had lived with Washington all their lives as 
neighbors in the Old Dominion : as comrades through 
the difficulties and dangers of the War of Independ- 
ence : as fellow citizens in the perilous times, threat- 
ening anarchy, which came after the War, and before 
the adoption of the Constitution : men who knew 



Washington in all these relations were willing 
without partiality, and without hypocrisy, to give 
him the first place in a company where the meanest 
man had yet been a part in a great era, an era 
marking a step forward for the whole human race. 
For the men who formulated the Declaration of 
Independence, and the Constitution of the United 
States were amongst the great and signal benefac- 
tors of their fellow men. Nothing done in history 
by men of their race whether on battle field or in 
council, has stirred so profoundly for good the 
springs and fountains of freedom, as the work 
accomplished by Washington and his compatriots. 
The love, admiration, and approval of his contem- 
poraries is our heritage ; and we, too, are gladly 
willing to honor the memory of our brethren and 
fellow citizens of a hundred years ago, as well as to 
speak in special eulogy of Washington, illustrious 
in character and achievement ; and respected by 
men who had won the independence of their country 
without counting the cost in blood and treasure. 

The Rev. Alden Bradford, the author of the 
address delivered here a hundred years ago, was a 
graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1786. 
For a number of years he was minister of the Con- 
gregational parish in this town. He delivered the 
address at the formal celebration of the death of 
Washington held on the 22nd of February, 1800. 
and which was published at that time. That cele- 
bration was by the recommendation of the authorities, 
and was general throughout the Commonwealth. 
This, whose centennial we celebrate to-day, was held 



9 

at the spontaneous motion of Lincoln Lodge, and it 
is said, was the first public service, to mark the 
general grief on the death of Washington, observed 
in the district of Maine.* Mr. Bradford after leaving 
Wiscasset, went and dwelt at Boston. There he 
wrote and published books : A History of Massa- 
chusetts from 1764 to 1820; and, A History of the 
Federal Government. From 1812 to 1824 he was 
Secretary of State of Massachusetts. PVom this 
recital it will appear that association with a Lodge 
of Free and Accepted Masons was not repugnant to 
the opinions, nor derogatory to the character of a 
settled minister one hundred years ago. 

The church in which the exercises of that day 
were held was afterwards torn down, and a more 
commodious structure succeeded it. But it is 
doubtful, if tradition may be trusted for its report, 
whether the new building surpassed the old in the 
dignity and suggestiveness befitting a place of 
worship. There is then a certain propriety in hold- 
ing these services in this place erected to God. 
This building is now the oldest church building in 
town ; and although not originally dedicated by the 
rites of the Protestant Episcopal Church, being, as 
you know, built by a congregation of Baptist Chris- 
tians, yet its corner stone was laid by Lincoln Lodge 
in due and ancient form in the year of grace 1822 
on the third day of June ; and Worshipful Master 

*Jenks' Portland Gazette of December 30th, 1799, states that the news of 
General Washington's death reached I'ortland on the Thursday preceding. 
The day following, at the request of the selectmen, the Rev. Dr. Deane 
<ielivere<l a pertinent funeral oiation. Thursday was the 26th day of the 
loontb and the day fallowing was the 27th. 



TO 

John H. Sheppard, whose beautiful Masonic hymn 
we have used in these services, wielded the trowel 
in that function. These memorials of the men of 
former days help us to understand the propriety of 
the action to-day of the Free ana Accepted Masons 
in proceeding to honor the memory of an illustrious 
and respected brother. Every one familiar with 
the work of the Lodge will perceive this propriety. 
And this church building is worthily used in com- 
memorating the virtues and the services of one who 
was not only a communicant, and officer of the 
Church, but also the leader of the armies of his 
country, and its first President. If it is proper to 
pray for the President of the United States in this 
place while living, it is most proper to call to mind 
here his public virtues and his services and sacrifices 
for his country when dead, 

Washington was baptized in the Church and 
was a communicant of the Church. He was never 
confirmed : for the reason that in his day there were 
no Bishops in the colonies. It was the theory of 
the mother country that the colonies were not yet 
fit for self-government. They could not govern 
themselves in Church or State. Royal governors 
sustained the royal dignity, and took to themselves 
certain prerogatives in the State. And inasmuch as 
a Bishop was one of the Lords Spiritual of the realm, 
one of the three estates, the P^nglish government 
could not see their way clear to send a Bishop to 
America. Once they came near doing it : and the 
man chosen, it is said, was Jonathan Swift, the 
famous Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He might 



I r 

have been Bishop of Virginia, but preferred to be 
Dean of St. Patrick's. And what the Church in 
America would have been, with such a representa- 
tive of the mother country's superior wisdom and 
power to govern at its head, we need not long con- 
jecture. But we may be thankful that, in the Provi- 
dence of God, the first Bishops of Washington's 
Church in the United States were such men as 
Seabury of Connecticut, who had been a Tory 
during the war, but had sense enough to accept 
accomplished results after the w^ar, and White of 
Pennsylvania, and Madison of Virginia, friends of 
Washington and of the Revolution. 

The sort of religious training given by the 
Church is illustrated by the life of Washington. She 
aims to train her children to live a sober, righteous, 
and Godly life. To be religiously and devoutly dis- 
posed to observe the rites and ceremonies of the 
Church ; and she tries to save men from cant and 
double-dealing. Her simplicity and sincerity com- 
mend her to the minds of such men as Washino^ton, 
and Marshall ; Heniy Clay, and Webster ; Robert E. 
Lee, and George Dcwc}-. Men of action and of af- 
fairs ; who never made their religion a parade or 
show, and yet were deeply and sincerely religious. 
It is charged against Washington that lie swore at 
Charles Lee for his conduct at Monmouth. But Lee's 
conduct on that occasion would make any man swear. 
And it is told of General Israel Putnam, when disciplin- 
ed publicly by the Congregational Church of Pomfret, 
of which he was a member, for swearing at the men 
who were retreatinfr from the sloncs of Bunker Mill, 



12 

that he said that such cowardice as the men showed 
there would make an angel swear. It is not to 
justify profanity that I recite these things. For a 
man swearing in the heat of battle is not profane. 
At such a time he is not taking the name of God 
in vain. The whole nature of the man is moved and 
stirred to its profoimdest depths, and the Lord who 
is a Man of War, the Lord of Hosts is his name^ 
hears the prayer of such a one, and lets his cry come 
unto him. To a man of the intense and over-mas- 
tering nature of Washington we must allow some- 
thing more than to small men. fkit no Churchman 
will think any the less of Washington for what is- 
currently reported as the tradition of these things. 
They bring Washington the man nearer to every 
man with blood in his veins, and he still remains 
with them illustrious and respected. If Washington 
cursed Charles Lee at Monmouth he did nothing 
more than all Americans have been doing ever 
since. The curse of the father of his country abode 
on Charles Lee. It was the Nemesis of unbelief. 
Lee believed in the British Grenadiers ; he did not 
believe in American backwoodsmen. But the 
American faith is to believe in men. 

Washington was not only illustrious and re- 
spected for his religious belief and practice, but also- 
for the part he took in the days preceding inde- 
pendence. No one in the country was ignorant of 
the causes of discontent prevailing. The British, 
government was intent upon fastening the charge 
of the French and Indian war, and other public 
expenses, upon the American people. The Ameri- 



13 

can people had never questioned the right of the 
King of England to levy taxes here. But they said 
that these taxes must be voted by themselves 
through their own legislatures : by their own dele 
gated representatives and not by the British Parlia- 
ment. The whole controversy is set forth most 
clearly b\' Bancroft in his History. From this 
work it is clear that the Americans were con- 
tending for their legal rights as freemen : their 
legal rights as Englishmen. There can be little 
doubt that if the projects of royal cabinets had been 
successful in America, Englishmen at home would 
have suffered some curtailment of their liberties. 
The motto put forward in that contest was that tax- 
ation w^ithout representation is tyranny. The only 
taxation which the colonists knew was that of their 
own imposing. There were certain expenses neces- 
sary to their very moderate establishments which 
they paid cheerfully. Adam Smith in The Wealth 
of Nations (Bk. IV, ch. VII, 22) says that the entire 
amount spent in the 13 colonies was about ^75,000 
per annum ($375,000.) "An ever memorable ex- 
ample at how small an expense 3,000,000 of people 
may not only be governed, but well governed." At 
this time Massachusetts was the most lavish of the 
colonies in her expenses, spending no less than 
/,'i8,ooo or $90,000 a year; /io,ooo. $50,000, more 
than Virginia or .South Carolina. Last year in Maine 
and Massachusetts together between 60 and 70 mil- 
lions of dollars were spent on national, state, county 
and town governments. Nearly two hundred times 
as much as all the colonial governments cost in 

5775- 



H 

But the principle is correct. The power of tax- 
ation is a i:;^ovcrnmcntal power. To exercise it 
without the consent of the governed people is 
tyranny. The sum which the government of Great 
Britain could raise from a duty of 3 pence on the 
pound of tea could not have amounted to a great 
deal. If people used tea in those days as we do 
now, the tax would have yielded about ;/^i 12,000 
per annum: $560,000. But Inasmuch as the average 
consumption then was about a pound per annum 
for the whole country 3,000,000 lbs. of tea then 
would have paid ^75,000, $375,000. This sum was 
small, and we would now consider it scarcely worth 
fighting about. But the principle involved was 
vital ; and to submit to this tyranny would be to 
invite all tyranny in every direction. As a matter 
of fact it is said that but ^80 was produced by this 
tax in the whole country at an expense of ^200,000 
to collect. (E. B. sub. U. S.) Because the people 
had agreed to drink no tea as long as it was taxed. 
To us who are accustomed to many sorts of taxation 
for governmental purposes, and to many sorts of 
extortion through trusts, monopolies and combina- 
tions in restraint of trade, they, the American patri- 
ots of '76, seem to have been idealists, and not 
practical men of affairs. For by raising the price of 
coal to ten cents per ton above what it costs to 
deliver it here the gentlemen who direct the Read- 
ing Coal and Iron Company can make the people of 
New England pay them twice as much a year as 
King George extorted from the whole thirteen 
colonies. Rather than pay a tax of 3d. on the pound 



15 

of tea, which the British Parliament had no legal 
right to impose, our fathers did without tea. And 
rather than submit to the King's fleets and armies 
they fought the War of the Revolution. Jefferson's 
estimate of the cost of the war was $140,000,000, 
and on the first of January, 1791, the public debt of 
the U. S. was $75,000,000, most of it on account of 
the war. (Mc?\Iaster I, 139. World Almanac, 1898.) 
So we see how far devotion to an ideal will carry 
earnest men. Rather than submit to taxation on 
the part of King George asking for but one year's 
tribute the fathers spent T^y^} times the amount it 
would have cost them to submit. Washington was 
a leader and counsellor in all this. It is a most 
suggestive consideration. 

But this resistance to the government of Great 
Britain could have but one result. Concord and 
Lexington disclosed the opening scene of that war 
which Patrick Henry had declared to be inevitable. 
Bunker Hill made reconciliation more improbable, 
and the minds of men began to turn to Independ- 
ence. It is characteristic of the political genius of 
the American people that even in the first begin- 
nings of their national life they did not haste beyond 
the progress of events. As each problem arose it 
was solved in accordance with the wisest discretion 
of the time. Although the people had enter- 
ed upon the war with no thought of rebellion against 
the King, or of independence from the mother 
country, but only to preserve the rights of English- 
men hitherto unquestioned from illegal assault, yet 
as the preparations of the English government for 



i6 

their subju^j^ation developed it was seen that self- 
respect and consistency denounced the necessity of 
the Declaration of their Independence. This Dec- 
laration of Independence was made possible by the 
practical political sense which kept the colonies 
■united. It is the gift of the English speaking peo- 
ple that for practical ends they can unite, and that 
'they can trust each other in word and c\e.cd. But 
the principles of the Declaration as to the self-evi- 
dent truths that all men are created equal ; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain imalien- 
able rights ; that among these rights are life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness ; and to secure these 
rights governments are instituted among men, de- 
riving their just powers from the consent of the 
<>"Overned. sounded a new call for the advancement 
of men. These principles are not expressed in so 
many words in the Constitution of the United States. 
In one sense they are no part of the laws of the 
United States. Yet there is no doubt that the Con- 
stitution is intended to embody these principles in 
goveriunent as far as that is practicable in such an 
instrument. Fhey are expressed plainly in the Bill 
of Rights of Maine and of Massachusetts. Wash- 
ington believed in them fully and accepted them. 
There can be no question that he foresaw the con- 
flict that would arise touching slavery. How else 
can you explain his anxiety to preserve the union ? 
"The unity of government, which constitutes you one 
people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so : 
for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real 
independence — the support of your tranquillity at 



i7 
home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your 
prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly 
prize." ( Farewell Address, Sept. 17th, 1796.) Again 
he says, accepting the principles of the Declaration, 
"The basis of our political systems is the right of the 
people to make and to alter their constitutions of 
government." And while warning the people against 
the danger of factions, and of putting in the place of 
the will of the nation, the will of a party, he foresees 
clearly that such combinations and associations are 
likely. "In the course of time and things to become 
potent engines by which cunning, ambitious and 
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the 
power of the people, and to usurp for themselves 
the reins of government." I will not follow this line 
any further. But consider that the only interest 
which could be served by the dissolution of the 
union was that of chattel slavery. Washington says 
in reference to the compromises which made slavery 
possible under the Constitution : — "There are some 
things in this new form. I will readily acknowledge, 
which never did, and I am persuaded never will, 
obtain my cordial approbation. But I did then con- 
ceive, and do now most firmly believe, that, in the 
aggregate, it is the best Constitution that can be 
obtained at the epoch, and that this, or a dissolution, 
awaits our choice, and is our only alternative."' 
(Lives of the Presidents, p. 52) The most obvious 
corollary of the doctrine that all men are born free 
and equal, was the abolition of negro slaver)-. Wash- 
ington desired this. He made provision in his will 
that upon the decease of his wife "All the slaves 



which I hold in my own right shall receive their 
freedom. To emancipate them during her life would, 
though earnestly wished by me, be attended by in- 
superable difficulties." Slavery was so bound up 
with the social life of the south that at last its aboli- 
tion was insuperable to the south. But the discus- 
sion of the question of abolition soon found its way 
into Congress. It was recognized as a difficult 
question to handle. Nearly every Congress had to 
deal with the subject, and in that (the sixth) of 1 799 
some free negroes of Philadelphia presented a peti- 
tion for a redress of wrongs done to negroes who 
had been kidnapped and sold south to Georgia. 
The opinion of the House seemed to be that Legis- 
lation on slavery was a subject from which the Con- 
gress was precluded by the Constitution. A motion 
that such subjects should receive no encouragement 
or countenance was passed by a vote of 85 to one. 
The one who voted in this way, willing to be count- 
ed in this minority as an advocate of freedom, was 
George Thatcher, who had to six Congresses been 
sent as the representative from the District of 
Maine. (McMaster, 11,456.) But a social wrong, 
like that of slavery, involving all the social life and 
institutions of a people can only be righted by social 
action. Individual abolitionists, and well-meaning 
emancipations of individual slaves availed nothing 
against the system. As long as there was money to 
be made by it, interested parties would defend and 
maintain it. But what a vindication does our recent 
history award to Washington ? How clearly it ex- 
plains why his contemporaries thought him the 



19 

father of his country, that a hundred years ago he 
was a Union man and an advocate of freedom for 
black men as well as white! Because he believed, 
what many among us now do not believe, that men 
are created free and equal. 

When Washington died a hundred years ago, 
the experiment of a government to secure the rights 
of men "Of the people, by the people and for the 
people," was still under way. No one in England 
thought it could succeed. Washington himself was 
most hopeful and courageous. We ought to read 
his farewell Address more frequently than we do. 
For the principles therein set forth are just as bene- 
ficial to us as they were to the fathers. To be true 
to the Union ; to avoid entangling alliances with 
foreign powers ; to beware of party spirit, and the 
designs of cunning, unscrupulous, and ambitious 
men ; to accept fully the Constitution and to respect 
public order ; to maintain carefully the rights of 
person and property ; (not property and person : to 
the mind of Washington the rights of men tran- 
scended the rights of things, of property,) to esteem 
highly the character of morality, learning, and re- 
ligion ; and to cherish the public credit. Whoever 
reads this dignified, well considered, and moderate 
address will conceive a true estimate of the influence 
of single-minded devotion to the public welfare 
which won for Washington the love of his country- 
men. What a lesson his life is to the modern poli- 
tician who is in politics for his own pecuniary ad- 
vancement ! What a warning it conveys to the 
careless, selfish, and covetous American citizen who 



20 

allows such men to attain high political position : 
who considers his government a mere useful agent 
to enable him to accumulate by special legislation a 
fortune wrung from the needs of his fellow citizens : 
to rob them under the forms of law ! 

One of the principal arguments, used with his 
fellow-countrymen by our illustrious and respected 
brother, why they should accept the Constitution, 
and give it a fair and patient trial, was that it pro- 
vided for its own amendment. According to the 
exigencies of times, and foreseeing that changes 
would occur in the social and political life of a peo- 
ple destined to rule a continent, it was not thought 
best to ask them to bind themselves to an unchange- 
able agreement. And consider what the differences 
are in our social and commercial life. A hundred 
years ago Samuel Slater had just started the first 
cotton mill in the United States at Pawtucket, R. I. 
(1793). Eli Whitney had invented the cotton gin, 
the machine that made slavery profitable. There 
was not a steam-ship in the world. Not a railroad. 
The common roads were like those of Wiscasset to- 
day, and no country in the world was as well provid- 
ed with good roads as Ireland is at present. There 
was not a great city in the United States ; no gas ; no 
town supplied with public water works ; no coal in 
use here : no electric lights ; no matches : no electric 
roads ; no telegraph ; no telephone : no wireless 
telegraphy ; no liquid air ; no petroleum in use ; no 
acetylene light. None of those physical things which 
make the glory and the beauty of a modern city were 
then known ; but, on the other hand, there were no 



21 

slums in our cities; and there was not a tramp in 
the United States. At that time there was no Amer- 
ican Bell Telephone Company, to maintain rates ; 
no American Book Company, to keep up the price 
of school books ; no American Sugar Refining- 
Company, to keep up the price of suorar to Americans, 
while it sold its surplus abroad at a lower rate ; no 
Beef Consolidated Company, to keep up the price 
of beef to those who eat beef, and to run down the 
price of cattle to those who raise cattle ; no Carnegie 
Steel Company to keep up the price of steel used in 
bridges and buildings, and to force the government 
of the United States to pay an enhanced price on 
armor for its battleships ; no Consolidated Ice Com- 
pany to make ice dear in New York and the South, 
and to make labor cheap in Maine; no Joint Traffic 
Association of Railroad Companies representating 
$12,000,000,000 of Capital ; and having an available 
revenue of $500,000,000 (only $15,000,000 less 
than that of the government of the United States 
for 1899,) to keep up freight and passenger rates, 
and to keep down the wages of railroad employees ; 
no Standard Oil Company to keep up the price of 
the common oil for light, and paying 30 per cent, 
dividends on a capital of $97,000,000, much of it 
water ; no Western Union Telegraph Company to 
keep up the price of telegrams ; no Anthracite Coal 
Companies Association to keep up the price of coal. 
This is a list of only ten trusts of two hundred and 
sixty now existing in the United States. They make 
food, fuel, light, travel and transportation, learning 
and intelligence dearer than they ought to be. They 



oppress the poor. They show how far it is possible 
for private greed to go when the people put power 
without responsibility into the hands of cunning, 
unscrupulous, and ambitious men. They help us to 
understand how covetousness is idolatry. The 
power to charge the consumer more than the cost of 
production is possible only through monopoly. 
Where competition is unrestrained it is not possible. 
No monopoly, or combination in restraint of trade 
is now lega>, and never has een legal, among men 
whose heritage is the common law of England. The 
reason why taxation without representation is tyr- 
anny is that all illegal, arbitrary, and iniquitous use 
of power is tyranny. The tyranny of George the 
Third against the colonies in Washington's day, as 
far as the collection of revenue is concerned, is but 
a little fmger compared to the loins of the Standard 
Oil Company's exactions. The King wanted to col- 
lect a tax of $375,000 per annum and could not do 
it. But the Standard Oil Company, through its 
monopoly, collects, by its own showing, $19,400,000 j.. 
annually. (Twenty per cent, on $97,250,000 capi- se, 
tal.) George the Third's tea tax would raise only ^ 
$10,125,000 to-day. But the people of the United 
States cannot under existing social conditions break 
this tyranny of to-day. It is just as illegal as the 
other tyranny of George the Third. The remedy is 
to be found in a constitutional amendment, both 
state and national, putting our whole scheme of tax- 
ation and revenue upon a natural and scientific 
basis. But first we will have to learn to love free 
trade, and free men, as Washington loved them. 



23 

Washington never profited by a cent's value 
through the services he yielded to his country. 
There were not wanting in his day envious men 
ready to question the motives, and to malign the 
reputation of a man so eminent. But as the years 
pass by the best opinion of his fellow country- 
men has justified him. No country has produced a 
public character so single minded ; so patient ; so 
purely devoted to the good of the Commonwealth, 
in modern times. We may recommend his example 
to our youth without a single cautionary reservation. 
He was the typical American, resolute, clear headed, 
clean handed, generous; a model of manly and 
modest reserve, a steadfast friend, a good neighbor, 
a loyal citizen, a lover of freedom. And he feared 
God. 

As members of the Masonic Order it becomes 
us to honor one who had taken our obligations, and 
was loyal to them. Concerning these obligations 
those of us who rest under them have no cause of 
scrupulousness except to keep them in good faith. 
"He that sweareth unto his neighbor, and disap- 
pointeth him not, though it were to his own hin- 
drance," is saia by the Psalmist to be among those 
who shall dwell in the Lord's tabernacle, and rest 
upon his holy hill. As freemen we arc the best 
judges of what use we shall make of our freedom. 
It is certain that the character of the Free Masons 
of the United States is such as to warrant them in 
exacting from their fellow citizens the presumption 
that such men would not voluntarily enter into an 
organization whose ends were unfriendly to the lib- 



24 

erty of freemen : the sanctity of social life : or the 
restraints and supports of true religion. Washington 
himself would not have retained his membership in 
any organization likely to be at all harmful to his 
fellow citizens. But we must remember that most 
of the wrong done in the world is the work of men. 
And that not of poor and ignorant men ; but of the 
rich, and the learned, who are also cunning, un- 
scrupulous, and ambitious. Men in entering the 
Free Mason's Lodge, then, do not lay aside their 
human nature. They do not profess to be born 
again, to enter into a new life, as men do who be- 
come members of the Church. In this fraternal 
union they are knit together by the bands of broth- 
erly love natural to loving, generous, and kindly 
human nature. And as human nature has never 
risen to the promptings of its highest possibilities in 
the family, and in the state, neither has it in the 
Free Mason's Lodge. Even in the Church broth- 
erly love is not always the determining factor in 
shaping action. In reviewing such a movement as 
was involved in the anti-Masonic excitement of the 
earlier part of this century, then, these considera- 
tions should have weight. They should have weight 
now when Masonry is subjected to the attacks of 
men who do not approve of it. Free Masonry has 
survived these attacks, and will survive similar 
attacks in the future. But it cannot survive the 
surrender of its principles : or the removal of the 
ancient landmarks of the order. We have no doubt 
that Washington would have rcMiiained constant to 
his membership in the order, as many another worth) 
brother and fellow had done before him. 



25 

For more than a hundred years Lincoln Lodge 
has done its Masonic work in this community. Of 
the institutions of the town apart from the town 
itself, the First Parish and the Lodge are the only 
ones that survive. The Social Library was founded 
in 1799. The Fire Association had not yet been 
formed. The Artillery Company is long since dis- 
banded. And that this Lodge a hundred years ago 
should have been so prompt to show their sense of 
loss in the death of Washington speaks loudly for 
the patriotism of the men of those days. We are 
glad to commemorate their virtues and their public 
spirit. And in like manner should we be glad to 
recall what the leadership of Washington meant a 
hundred years ago. Those times were very different 
from ours in every social, political, and commercial 
respect. But new occasions teach new duties. And 
it will always be safe for Americans to look back to 
the men, the principles, and the political institutions 
through which they expected to introduce among 
men a new order of the ages; Novus ordo seclorum. 



NoTH. For many of the facts in this address the writer is indebted to 
the History of Lincoln Lodge by Worthy brother Rufus King Sewall; wlio, 
also, placed his notes at the writer's disposal. 



W84 






'•- %^**^.*^&''''\#*''".'^K'''** •S'*"''^ 






-^^0^ 

^*^^^ 










*5 .•j.::^* '> 







H#. * • » 1 • AW ^ «■ « _ o 9 aV 






" " " \^ 










-^0 



'oK 






>«• '^bV^ 



•^ • I ^ _V^ ^rf^ * B - o ' av O. «, ^^ . * \0 ^^ * ^ 































/''Z^% •"°^<...\.^•y....,\■ 







* <t. 



3^"0 



f 








-ov*' 




^^■i°.<. 







^^ ^y 






^ 








:. '^^0^ o, 




^"-^^^ 








V 



0^ oo-.^-^o. ^^^ ^'^^^/'"'^ 








• • » \ ' 





:. '-^^0^ o, 












.... ^o 





J' o 



./-.• 








tvT* .v'^ 






9.V 



WERT BOOKBINDING 




JAM . 






Jk 



> (jfnntvHIc, pi 












^Co<=»- 



T* A. 







